Charmaine Dunmow

I am an Accredited Member of the UK Council for Psychotherapy

I offer counselling on a short or long term basis in Saffron Walden and Castle Hedingham in Essex. 

Making the decision to come for counselling is the first step on the journey to discovering and understanding more about yourself, your relationships and your place in the world.   

What I can help with:

- Support through unexpected life events, period of change and loss
- Exploring, understanding and learning to manage overwhelming emotions
- Reconnecting or finding a greater sense of purpose
- Releasing old patterns of behaviour that no longer work
- Developing more fulfilling relationships
- Realising your inner potential

Additional Information:

I have experience working with anxiety, depression, developmental trauma and emotional neglect, relationship issues, work related stress, change, loss, low self esteem and transitional life stages including the bridge from adolescence to adulthood, midlife and beyond.

My Counselling Approach

As an integrative psychotherapeutic counsellor I draw on theories and concepts from the three main schools of psychological thought: Humanistic, Analytic and Cognitive Behavioural (CBT).

What distinguishes psychotherapeutic counselling from traditional counselling is the emphasis it places on the in-depth therapeutic relationship jointly created by the therapist and the client. This relationship is a central factor.

My approach is primarily humanistic, grounded in Attachment Theory and guided by current neuroscience. My work acknowledges the crucial inter-relationship of body, mind and spirit.

How I work:

Within the safety of the therapeutic relationship I focus on how my client experiences his or her life in the present. Every client has a unique situation and is considered as a whole. I encourage my client to explore and develop their own self awareness so it is made possible for them to begin to identify what it is that is needed in his/her life now. At the core of our work we will be looking at relationships in all their dimensions.

As a relational, integrative counsellor my approach is always collaborative. Building a warm, non- judgemental, secure relationship will become a fundamental part of our work together.

Talking, being heard and being understood on a deeper level can bring about profound change.

Some clients prefer to just talk, while others connect more easily using other forms of creative expression such as working with image and metaphor, guided visualisation, puppetry, dreams, collage, story enactment, poetry, music or writing.

“Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”
― C.G. Jung.